Union: Half of hospitals have a 15-year-old machine

UP TO half of the nation’s hospitals have diagnostic equipment which is past its recommended sell-by date, according to the union representing the majority of the country’s radiographers and radiation therapists.

Michelle Monaghan, chair of SIPTU’s national executive of radiographers and radiation therapists, said hospitals are continuously looking for upgraded equipment but it was provided on an ad-hoc basis.

“It’s done on a crisis management basis, it’s not done proactively, or planned, which it should be,” she said.

“There are 52 hospitals under the National Hospitals Office (NHO) and I would imagine half of those hospitals would have at least one piece of equipment — bearing in mind that up to 10 pieces of equipment are in each hospital — there may be one piece in each hospital that’s 15-years-old or more.”

Ms Monaghan’s comments, made on RTÉ radio yesterday, were on foot of claims that imaging equipment used in breast cancer diagnosis at the Midlands Regional Hospital in Portlaoise was of poor quality and could lead to a missed or delayed diagnosis.

Last week it emerged eight women had mistakenly been given the all-clear for cancer at the hospital. Six more women initially given the all-clear will learn next week if they have the disease.

The Health Service Executive has said the diagnostic equipment was tested in May and no fault found. However Ms Monaghan said her members in Portlaoise had, since 2003, included in their safety statements concerns that some of the Portlaoise diagnostic equipment was a hazard.

President of the Irish Hospital Consultants Association, consultant radiologist Dr David O’Keefe, said despite legal requirements that equipment be replaced on specified dates, it was “very difficult to get health managers or network managers, John O’Brien of the NHO, or health chief Professor Brendan Drumm” to make such a commitment because it involved a commitment to capital spending, based on advance planning, which the HSE was not good at.

Ms Monaghan said her members were seeking recognition as practitioners because such a status would allow them articulate concerns in relation to equipment.

Both Ms Monaghan and Dr O’Keefe were critical of hospital management at Portlaoise for failing to respond to the radiology department when it wrote to them outlining concerns about the mammography machine.

She rejected Government claims that centres of excellence could be created through reconfiguration of services, saying “reconfiguration is just a management buzzword and it just won’t work in these circumstances”.

Dr O’Keefe criticised the lack of radiology standards despite discussions since 2002. However, Dr Tony Houlihan, deputy chief medical officer at the Department of Health, said every hospital that provides a radiation service has a safety committee and there was a process whereby the Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland carries out annual inspections and certifies services.